I am sure you all remember the times in elementary school when we watched shows on Disney Channel about high schoolers, in which their lives were portrayed to look so cool and exciting. We started to become discontent with our nine-year-old bodies and think “why can’t that be me right now?” Although what Disney Channel failed to portray was how that “exciting” part of high school accounted for about 5% of the time, with the rest spent stressing over homework, tests, sports, volunteering, college, and anything else you can think of. Once I got to high school, I immediately realized how much of that time as a child I took for granted, as now the few days before Christmas were not spent making gingerbread houses but rather taking nine-week exams. There are so many great elementary school memories that made me realize how much I miss being a kid. So, I decided to ask a couple of LMHS students some of their favorite elementary school memories, and these were the responses…

For some people, it was the activities. Multiple people commented on how they missed some of the P.E. activities, including senior Hailey Reale, who said she missed “the big rainbow parachute,” or Austin York, who misses “the scooter things” (because let’s be real, no one really knows what they’re called). Of course, I can’t leave out all of the epic parties that seemed to occur almost every week. Senior Anna Currie reflected back on all of the holiday parties, in which “everyone brought their pillows and blankets, and we watched The Polar Express and drank hot chocolate.” I personally think we should start a petition to bring that trend back, because who wouldn’t want free food and nap time?

Although for others, it was the little trinkets and items that brought back some of the memories. For multiple people, that includes the fashion trend of silly bands. They became so popular that I think at one point my elementary school banned kids from wearing them; they were like the black market for nine-year-olds. Although once the Silly Bandz phase was over, soon after that came the next couture trend: Rainbow Loom. There were kids that knew how to make all these complicated designs and soon there was an entire trade market around Rainbow Loom bracelets. For some, like senior Izzy Dealmeida, it was fun, colorful, learning tools that she misses, such as “the little colorful bears.” I remember the days when math could be learned with cubes and colorful shapes, you know, back when math was easy.

This leads me to my next point, which is that some students miss the simplicity of it all. Senior Hannah Kadzban misses “being good at math,” and I feel like the majority of the student population can relate. Sometimes I think about how ridiculous it was that I was stressed about having to multiply three-digit numbers. If fourth grade me knew what was coming, I probably wouldn’t have taken those assignments for granted. I also feel like it’s easy to forget that in elementary school, reading was cool. Kids would get awards for reading and there would always be prizes for getting the most reading counts points or reading all of the sunshine state books. Then all of a sudden I got to middle school and it was like they took all the fun out of reading. No longer was it for fun, rather I had to analyze books and write papers about them.

Sometimes I really miss the simplicity of elementary school, and I wish I hadn’t taken it for granted. While I enjoy the age I’m at now, sometimes it is nice to take a moment to reflect on the good ol’ days.